Meltdown
by shadpio
Summary: Contains: Shadow x Espio, Shadow x Rouge Light , Espio x Fancharacter Also Contains: Rape, Abuse, Swearing, Lemon Shadow and Espio find themselves trapped in the game of a demons, the only way they can escape is by defeating the demon at his own game and taking the risk of effecting the reality they are dreaming to return to.
1. Meltdown Prologue: 1

It was a cold night in the forest; the wind was strong and the weather was less then ten degrees. It was a full moon, the stars and moon illuminating in the night light. The forest itself was almost empty, a pink chameleon was pushing his way through the forest in hope or finding someone or something to help him get back to the gang had been on a mission to retrieve some data on a monster which had been roaming the streets and causing murders. Unluckily for them, one of the creators of this monster happened to spot them hacking the system, and tried to self destruct the whole area.

Espio was the last to escape, and had no idea where Vector or Charmy had gone. He didn't know how to get back to the agency by foot, and they'd driven off with the last car in the area. The chameleon had been walking around for over an hour, and his legs were getting tired after having to immediately flee Area 99. He slumped down against a tree placing his hands on his knees. Glancing at his wrist communicator, he realised he'd lost connection. He groaned; Knowing he was stuck in a forest which stretched out for miles in all directions made him figure he wasn't getting out for a while. He leant his head against the tree behind him and closed his eyes. A cold gust of wind hit against him and he wrapped his arms around himself shivering. Out of nowhere, a piercing scream was heard, Espio fell back and landed on the mucky floor. His eyes shot open looking around; Just where did that scream come from? The trees had begun rustling violently and gusts of wind could be heard. He got back up on his feet and stood in his ninja stance. "Who's there?!" He shouted to the wind, only to notice the whole scenario had gotten darker, and a cloud of mist had formed in front of him.

From that cloud, a figure could be seen: It was walking closer to Espio with it's eyes like snow. "Espio." It echoed, making Espio panic. He got out a kunai and placed it in front of his face.

"How do you know my name?!" But the figure refused to reply, and only held up a single hand. Within a matter of seconds black vines had been wrapped all around Espio, forcing him to drop his kunai. "W-Who are you?!"

The figure took another step closer, and revealed his huge, white, sharp teeth. The ninja's eyes shrank a bit in fear. "You know who I am now, don't you?" The figure brought his face close to Espio's and let out a soft moan before stepping back and smirking so Espio could see his face.

Before Espio got the chance to reply, he felt one of the blurs dark claws swipe against his belly. He resisted the urge to yelp through gritting his teeth together. "You…You're the monster. The experiment that went purposely wrong…And you're here to kill me." The figures shape became more visible and was now an anthropomorphic demon. Their sharp claws dragged along the floor along with their dagger like tail. The demon laughed at the chameleon and propped his head on the chameleons shoulder. "Oh you must think you're so tough, don't you, Espio? But the truth is…You're not. You are just some weak fragile ninja who can't even tell his friends his sexuality because he's scared of his friends reactions…To me all you are is weak, weak, weak." Espio felt the vines tighten around him and he began to cough violently.

"How…How did you know that?!" Espio yelled, only to feel the demon slam his head into the back of the tree. His coughs got louder and he felt the tip of one of the vines stroke his backside.

"Heh…I know more then you think, Espio." Espio did his best to shut his legs together but it wouldn't work, the vine still continued to stroke him. He shivered.

The demon smirked when he made the vine push its way inside Espio, and tears formed in his eyes. "S-Stop…That you bastard!"

"No."

Tears flowed down Espio's face as he felt another vine shove itself up and down his anal area. His yelping got weaker as the vines thrusted faster and deeper into him, his vision going a blur. "That's a good boy…" He heard the demon whisper "Now let me make my grand finale…" Espio heard the demon make a loud hissing noise before biting the side of his neck. The Chameleon tried to scream, but his body was too weak; It was useless. He felt the vines loosen up a bit and slide out of him. Warm blood trickled down his body from his neck and the tears felt like they were never ending. The demon spat out part of Espio's skin before cleaning away the drewling blood. Espio winced at his tongue pressing against his neck and causing his body to sting. "A-Ah!" Espio yelped as a warm fluid from the demons mouth was spat onto his body. "Ah…" His eyes got heavy and he fell to the floor passing out.

"Heh, That's what you get for trying to mess with me."

Somewhere else in the forest, a jet black hedgehog with red streaks was walking along with . "Hm that chaos emerald must be somewhere…" Eggman murmured, stepping into the mud and looking down at his detector "The signal is strong around here." Shadow glanced over at Eggman's detector and continued walking. He stopped his tracks when he noticed some fresh prints in the mud, a pair of footprints and a pair of handprints which were twice the size of the feet.

"Doctor take a look at this." Shadow murmured, raising an eyebrow at the print "what do you think…That was?" Eggman looked over at the print and crossed his arms in thought.

"Hm…It may be the monster from Area 99, trying to flee before the place blew up." Eggman suggested, shrugging "but it could be anywhere by now." Shadow nodded and the two continued to walk along.

Rain began to patter onto them and the mud began to get more slippery. Shadow did his best to keep balance, going ahead of Eggman. "The signals gotten stronger." Eggman said, putting his hand on Shadow's shoulder "we must be near." The hedgehog stopped and snatched the detector off of Eggman.

"Good." Shadow replied. He continued walking along, following the directions the detector was giving him. In the distance something caught the corner of his eye. He looked up from the detector and noticed an object lying by a tree that looked all to familiar.

"Well would you look at that…" Shadow began, walking to the sharp metal object and picking it up "isn't this one of the chameleons kunai's doctor?" Eggman nodded standing behind him, and wiped his moustache as the rain continued to hit against them.

"Espio isn't the kind to misplace his equipment…" Eggman muttered looking around. "Maybe he's nearby." Shadow examined the object, placed the kunai on his newly attached belt and continued voyaging onwards.

10 Minuets passed, the detector had began beeping madly as they walked on. "Yes…Yes the emerald must be near!" Eggman cheered with joy "then we can get out of this dump." Shadow mumbled some words which were unable to translate and turned back to .

"It should be just past those trees, I'll go on ahead to make sure nothing dangerous is there." Eggman went to a halt, not liking Shadow's idea as he feared Shadow would leave him behind, but nodded anyway to avoid any arguments. He leant by a tree and watched Shadow make his way through the trees and was soon out of site.

Shadow looked at the detector. "Right ahead…" He said, lowering the detector. His eyes widened in shock and his hand let go of the detector, but he caught it again before it hit the ground. A chameleon was passed out on the floor, his neck was bulging and bleeding, a purple aura around the bite mark which laid there. His chest had many marks on it, and one large swipe which went across his whole chest which still was seeping blood through. Shadow walked slowly towards Espio, unsure of whether he was dead or alive. He noticed the detector get louder and placed it close to Espio, kneeling down next to him. "This…" Shadow started, putting the detector near Espio's neck "this monster…has chaos energy. There is no chaos emerald." Shadow sighed in disappointment and put his detector away. "I wonder what happened…" He placed his arms around Espio and picked him up so his head was resting against Shadow's back. "Doctor."

Eggman turned to Shadow and jumped when he saw the unconscious chameleon. "The monster must have got at him…" Shadow looked down at Espio's scars and pulled out the detector.

"It seems the bitemark the monster gave him caused our detector to go off, it contains a huge mass of chaos energy. I suppose the monster must be alive through the chaos emeralds…"

"I see…" Eggman raised an eyebrow and noticed striped of purple along his body. "Let's take him back."

"Ok, Doctor."

So the two hurried back to their base with Espio in their hands.


	2. Meltdown Prologue: 2

Shadow was holding a cotton swob against Espio's neck; He knew the bite Espio had got was no normal bite and he wanted to know just what the monster was. Removing the cotton swob, he noticed that the colours of liquid from his neck changed from red…To blue. He raised an eyebrow in confusion and walked out of the room to the doctor who was also trying to find out who exactly the monster was. "There you go doctor." Eggman nodded and put the cotton swob into a jar turning to Shadow.

"It'll take a while to scan Shadow, so why don't you just try and wake up Espio?" Shadow nodded and turned around walking back to the door. He paused and titled his head a bit in Eggman's direction.

"Will you contact Rouge for me doctor?"

"…Sure." Eggman let out a heavy sigh; He'd been contacting Rouge for Shadow ever since the two started dating. The doctor didn't mind the fact they were dating, but she sidetracked him…And they made a lot of noise at night.

The hedgehog walked back into the room Espio was resting in, gas mask around Espio's mouth and one tube in where his slash lied. The two discovered the monster had taken a lot of his blood supply from him, making it harder for him to breathe and regenerate more blood. He noticed the chameleons eyebrows move ever so slightly and he sat down on the chair near the bed. "Espio?" Shadow questioned his consciousness and placed his hand on Espio's forehead. He moved it away quickly when he felt the iciness of Espio's body. "Freezing…Just what did that monster do to you?" Shadow felt his heart skip a beat when a scream came from Espio's bed. The chameleon had grabbed by the covers and began jumping as if he was being shocked. "E-Espio!" Shadow grabbed by his shoulders and shook him "Wake up you idiot don't make me jump like that!" Espio's eyes shot open, pupils a dark yellow colour instead of black.

Espio starred Shadow in the eyes and the two connected until Espio lowered his head and looked at the bed he was lying in. He pushed himself up and looked out the window to see many people below them; Some holding hands, some kissing, some doing even more…His eyes narrowed and he turned back to Shadow. "Sorry…" His voice was no more then a whisper. The chameleon felt the tube at his chest and pulled it out, but kept the gas mask on. They both watched the blood drip from the tube in silence. The chameleon wrapped his arms around his chest and began to shake. He glanced up at the hedgehog who was still starring into his eyes. "Could you please quit starring at me Shadow?" Shadow's ears perked at his harsh tone but looked out the window also and noticed Vector, Charmy and co. walking towards the base.

"Could you tell me what happened?"

"…Sure…" Espio fell silent for a moment, trying to remember…but he couldn't. "…My memories a bit of a blur…All I can remember is what was shouted at me…T-That…That one line…" Espio placed his hands on his head and closed his eyes tightly "How did he know…How?!" Shadow decided it was best not to question him as he noticed the chameleon struggling to cope with it.

"It's ok" Shadow whispered looking away "I understand." Espio felt a hand upon his head and noticed Shadow had placed it there. Shadow had no idea how to comfort people, but he knew how traumatising things can be, and he felt empathy for the chameleon. "I can't help you but I have these ears for a reason…" Espio felt the urge to look back up at Shadow, and so he did. Shadow petted his head slowly and moved his hand away quickly when he heard the door barge open. Espio jumped from the noise and they both turned to the door seeing a group of people come in. Shadow jumped up and leaned against the window watching Sonic walk in first. "No one invited you faker." Shadow said angrily. He huffed and looked at everyone else who entered the room: Vector, Charmy, Tails, Cream, Knuckles, Amy and…Rouge. The white bat smiled seductively and walked to Shadow leaning on his shoulder. Espio looked over at them and felt himself clench the bedsheets to stop himself from getting angry. He glared up at a blue hedgehog looking down at him.

"Woah Espio…Your eyes" Sonic said, almost speechless "Are you alright?" Espio noticed everyone huddle around him and began to feel uneasy; He especially hated that they were all starring down at him as if he was some monster. "Espio?" Espio didn't answer, just looked over at window Shadow was leaning against. "Can you talk Espio?" The chameleon let out a soft groan before nodding. Vector placed his hand on his own forehead.

"Espio tell us what happened." Vector whispered, kneeling down near Espio.

"I can't remember." Espio replied, but in his voice was uncertainty. Vector turned to Shadow and Rouge who had been chatting away the whole time. "Oi hedgehog! What did Espio say to you?!" Shadow jumped a bit and turned to Vector in shock and then looked at Espio.

"He said…" Shadow started, noticing Espio's eyes narrow in sorrow. He let out a soft quiet moan which made Shadow's ear twitch and his eyes droop slightly. "He…Said…Nothing…" They all then slowly turned to Espio in confusion, and how easily he controlled Shadow like he did. Rouge folded her arms and watched Shadow close his eyes and snap out of his quick phase. "Ok?!" Vector nodded quickly and Tails put his face close to Espio's raising an eyebrow.

"Your pupils are a different colour" Tails stated pointing "are you sure you can't remember if he did anything to you….the last thing you remember…Please, it could help…"

"Did you not hear me? He can't remember anyth-" Before Shadow could finish a high pitch wail was heard and the electricity went down.

Shadow blinked, trying to grab onto Rouge, but he couldn't reach her. "R-Rouge are you there?" He heard no reply, only a few screams. "R-Rouge!" Shadow shouted, but all he got in return was a bright flash. He covered his eyes and groaned. He noticed a figure opposite him, making a loud laugh. "W-What the heck?!" The figure showed his white eyes to Shadow.

"Why hello Shadow, I've heard many things about you. I can't wait to play."

The lights went back on soon after and everyone looked around. They noticed Shadow had left the room. "W-Where did Shadow go?!" Rouge shrieked "He was here a minuet ago! I heard him call me!" Everyone began looking around. "The doors still closed and so are the windows! How is that possible?! If he used chaos control w-we would've seen a flash!" Knuckles nodded and turned to a lump which was hiding under the bed.

"Espio are you ok…?" Knuckles asked lifting up the covers. But he didn't get a reply, all that came from under the covers were a pile of pillows which rolled off the bed and onto the floor. "…Crap."

Shadow groaned and looked over at the Demon who had begun laughing. "We just need to wait for our bait…" A clap was heard and Shadow noticed the demon sitting on some sort of throne with a crown on his head. Shadow gritted his teeth and looked around. He was standing on what seemed to be a chess board; with no one on it but himself. His eyes widened when he noticed the claws of the demon were larger then his feet.

"You…You monster."

"I know." The Demon laughed louder and suddenly a loud smash was open. "Oh he's arrived." Shadow gave his attention to a pink chameleon who had smashed through the window and added more bruises to his collection. Espio panted and stood up slowly limping his way to Shadow. "Hello, Espio." Espio glared up at the Demon; He did he best to only let his anger show.

"You do to Shadow what you did to me and I'll fucking kill you!" Espio bellowed pointing to the demon who just had a wide smirk on his face. "Let him go!"

"Oh your memory has come back now! Great!" The demon replied sarcastically clapping his hands together "I can't wait to start already!" Before either of them could protest the demon clicked his fingers and back vines had grabbed Espio by his legs and arms, pinning him to the wall. Shadow growled at the demon.

"What are you up to?!" He yelled, as the vines begun to multiply and travel all over Espio's body, Shadow noticed four of the vines messing with Espio's lower area. "Y-You sicko!" Shadow's eyes shrunk when he saw one of vines increase in width and shove itself up Espio, causing him to make muffled screams and let tears form in his eyes. The hedgehog looked away, feeling disgusted.

"I know." The demon stood up off his throne, dusted his hands, and jumped to Shadow. Out of his pocket he got out 4 dices and gave them to Shadow. "The rules of my game are very simple. You must get 21 using all four dices. Too high? You lose. Too low? You lose. You refuse to play? You lose." Shadow clenched his fist in annoyance.

"And if I win?" The demon blinked and then let out a high pitched laugh, making the chessboard shake a bit. He wipe a tear from his eyes. "Stop that you asshole!"

"Well. You won't win…But if for some reason you do. Well then, I'll leave you and Espio be."

"And if I lose?" A smirk came from the demons face and his canines were on show.

"You lose. Now roll stupid hedgehog." Shadow shook his fist at the demon then heard a cry to his right. "Shut up Espio."

"No you shut up!" Shadow felt horrible; He knew his chances of winning were so unlikely, and he needed to free Espio from those vines. He turned his head slowly and noticed the vines had also entered his mouth; a weird fluid coming out from them. The only things Shadow could see of Espio were his horns and eyes, glowing a fluorescent yellow colour as tears streamed down the vines from his eyes. His eyes travelled slowly downwards and noticed the fluid from the vines near his mouth had started coming out of the vines near his lower area. "What are you doing to him?!" Shadow yelled as he picked up one of the dices and threw them on the floor panting.

"Hah nothing…Oh look a 5…" The dice fell down on a black square which then began to flash. Shadow covered his eyes, and reopened them quickly to see the dice had grown much taller then himself and read the number 5 on all 6 sides. "Roll again."

Shadow felt anger burning inside of him at the Demons lack of fear. It was as if the demon had already planned Shadow's death. The hedgehog picked up another dice and slammed it on the floor. "Oh interesting…A 6" The dice grew in size and Shadow felt really uneasy about the situation he was stuck in. "Don't worry, all you need is a 10…You can make 10 by using 4 and 6 or 5 and -"

"I'm not fucking stupid!" Shadow hissed throwing his other dice. "Come on come on…" The dice rolled for a while, lingering in fact.

"Oh I'm excited, aren't you Espio?" The demon hissed, looking over at Espio; Eyes almost fully shut. Even so, the vines wouldn't stop. "Awh…It's a 5" Shadow felt himself smirk and look up I'm triumph. "Oh why are you looking so cocky? Wipe that smirk off your face and roll the dice. You only have a one in six chance."

"Pfft. I'm the ultimate life form." Shadow said, feeling overly confident. He bent down and looked down at the dice. "I can do this, no sweat."

He rolled the dice lightly and it bounced off the checkerboard pieces several times. Shadow stood up at it continued to bounce about; The demon and Espio following the dice as well. Soon the dice stopped and The Demon clapped his hands, looking away from the dice. Shadow heard a lot of moving about until he saw Espio's body being lowered to the dice; Which had not grown in size. Espio looked down at the dice, numb all over. "Espio, why don't you read out the number at the top of the dice for us?" Espio felt his body being dropped by the vines and he picked up the dice slowly looking down at the number. He gasped.

"…T-The number i-is…"


	3. Meltdown Prologue: 3

"…Four…"

Espio stayed silent for a moment, hands beginning to shake. The walls began closing in on them and two doors opened up, on either side of the walls which weren't moving towards them. The demon jumped up, turning into a cloud of darkness and hissed in the chameleon and hedgehog's ears. "You lose." Shadow gritted his and looked at the walls closing in on them. "Chose your door wisely." Shadow grabbed by Espio's wrist, noticing a vine grow out of the ground closely behind him. "Quick this way!" Shadow began to run, with Espio following behind. The Chameleon turned his head slightly to see a vine following them, and this vine slowly duplicated. He grabbed onto Shadow's other hand, trying to run faster. The wall were getting closer, Shadow could feel the air tightening. "Espio!" Shadow reached the door and opened it quickly jumping into the darkness that was ahead. Espio was pulled in behind Shadow, the vines being left behind.

They heard the door slam and a loud vacuum noise all around them. "S-Shadow!" Espio yelled looking around, he grabbed Shadow by his wrist panting "Shadow look!" The black hedgehog couldn't feel Espio's hand anymore and Espio had taken a few steps away from him. "…That light…" Shadow didn't understand what he was talking about to begin with; As he could only see Espio's outline a bit darker then the rest of room. He walked slowly to Espio and placed his hand on Espio's shoulder. Espio's eyes began to shine a bright yellow colour and an aura surrounded him. "You should step back." Shadow nodded, and took a step back and heard a loud, soft cry come from Espio.

"E-Espio are you o-!" Before Shadow could finish the bite mark on Espio's neck began to glow and two huge wings came out from his back, knocking Shadow flat. Shadow squinted his eyes as the light grew brighter; Almost blinding him. He rubbed his cheek from where the wings had flung him flying and looked at Espio, the aura fading away. "Espio…Are you ok?"

The chameleon turned to Shadow slowly, smiling as he did. "I…I don't know." The chameleon had a black chocker around his neck with a large kunai dangling from a chain which was hung to it. His accessories were the same, except from some new additional bandages covering some scars on his chest. He had pale wings growing from either side of his back; Almost as long as himself but each wing was a metre in width. A silver bow appeared in one hand, and a silver arrow appeared in the other. His only facial feature that had changed was his pupils…They'd gone.

"How…Wh…Why are you…?"

"I don't know, but I don't feel so much pain anymore, which is good." He glanced down at his bow and arrow. "What am I meant to do with these…?" He sat down, closing his wings, and tried to position the arrow in the bow.

"I suppose firing it can't do much harm." Shadow suggested, still bewildered by Espio's transformation. Espio nodded slightly and released the bow. Shadow had to cover his ears as the bow made a loud fire-work like noise while in midair. "Ear deafening much!" Espio watched the bow bounce onto one of the wall and pierce through it. "Oh wow…" Shadow stood up and helped Espio up watching the arrow stab it's way through the wall. Within a matter of seconds a giant line had opened up. They saw a land on the other side. Espio slowly walked towards the hole and peered through.

"…It's somewhat safe; I suppose." Espio reassured, poking the crack slowly. "Could you perhaps…Chaos blast it Shadow?" Shadow nodded and Espio jumped up as an electric energy escaped from Shadow's hands. The hedgehog let out a loud grunt before releasing the electric energy onto the wall. Espio jumped back down and watched the crack increase in size. "Good move Shadow." Shadow smirked and jumped through the hole, Espio jumping through afterwards.

"Rouge calm down!" Knuckles yelled at Rouge shaking her about. "It's only been an hour! This is the ultimate life form I'm sure he's fine…Please stop crying Rouge." The echidna wiped the bats tears and continued walking around looking for any clues. Rouge held on to Knuckles wrist looking around.

"I hope he's ok…" Rouge whispered. Knuckles nodded in agreement and shook his hand so Rouge let go. He titled his head back and groaned.

He heard a sound, like a gust of wind calling Rouge's name, but did his best to ignore it and turned his head to Rouge. "You know, I've never seen you so worried about anything in your life…Not even jewels." Rouge stayed silent and the two slowly entered the forest near Area 99.

"Well maybe that's because I love him…" Rouge bitterly replied looking around "and he's just randomly disappeared! For all I know it could've been that monster, he could be dead!"

"Rouge, this IS Shadow, that monster won't be able to kill him!" Knuckles eyes shrank when he noticed something; One of Shadow's rings. He turned to Rouge. "Rouge…I think we should split up. You go that way and I'll go this way ok?" Knuckles turned Rouge around. "Just call me if you need anything!" Rouge stayed where she was, just looking straight ahead.

"Ok." Her ears drooped a bit and she walked onwards without him. She noticed the sky turn grey and the sound of rain come down but it didn't stop her; She was determined to find her boyfriend. "Shadow where are you…?"

"Rouge…" A voice lingered in the air and rung a bell in her mind. She paused. "Rouge…I know where he is."

"What…Who's there?" A loud laugh was heard and leaves began to be blown about everywhere. "Answer me!"

"Alright." A black figure jumped down and walked slowly to Rouge grabbing by her chin, his white eyes piercing through. "How much does this Shadow mean to you…?"

"I love him! I'd do anything for him!" Rouge starred into his eyes, gulping a bit. "Absolutely anything!"

"Heh, well if that's the case…Lets make a little deal."

The sun was shining and palm trees were everywhere; There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Shadow walked along with Espio tagging along behind him looking around. A few cottages around, a beach, but what caught his eyes was the ocean; It spread out for miles. "So basically were in the middle of fucking no where." Shadow started, causing Espio to laugh.

"Seems like it, heck to be honest we don't even know if were dead or alive." Shadow's ears drooped down knowing the chameleon was right. "Eh…I'm sorry Shadow…"

Shadow shook his head and made his way to the beach sighing. "It's not your fault is it Espio? I was the one who rolled the bloody dices…"

"But you did it for us right? You risked it for us…Right?" Shadow nodded and Espio smiled, his blush was a grey colour. "Then I'm ok." Shadow jumped up onto a rock and Espio leant by the rock looking up at Shadow. "Shadow…I feel like I should tell you…"

"Tell…Me?"

"What he said…" Shadow went silent and laid back on the rock looking up at the night sky.

"Now isn't the right time; My mind is full." Espio bit his own lip and looked away. He kicked his feet in the sand.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Rouge." Shadow's voice went weary and he hugged himself. "I miss her." Espio looked up at Shadow, somewhat emotionless. He didn't know why but his heart ached with jealousy when her name was involved. Even if he didn't; He didn't know how to comfort people, he'd never been in a relationship himself. But Shadow was his friend and he could tell by the sudden change of attitude Rouge meant a lot to him; So he tried to accept it. The chameleon climbed up on the rock and placed his arm around Shadow.

The hedgehog stayed silent and looked at Espio. "I…I'm sorry I'm not Rouge." Shadows ear twitched and he looked up at Espio; Realising he'd insulted him in a way.

"…Did I do something?"

"No, it's just I was getting fucking raped by vines and all you can think about is your girlfriend" Espio teased. He bit his own lip and lowered his face burying it in his knees. "I can't believe you had to see that…"

"Uh…You shouldn't bring it up." Shadow rolled his eyes. "It's not something that I want to think about…"

'I can't help you but I have these ears for a reason…' Espio began to think of what Shadow said to him in the room, his heart ached at the lies.

"SHADOW!" They both lifted their heads up and looked around.

"Who said that? It can't be..."

"SHADOW OVER HERE!" The hedgehog blinked and saw a figure running to them smiling. "Soukiii!"

Shadow jumped off the rock and opened his arms out for the figure. "It really is you…" He felt the figure hug him tightly in a warm embrace.

"Rouge…


End file.
